If initial lessons included in an interim status report on the cause of February’s failure of the main spillway at California’s Oroville Dam are heeded, hundreds of U.S. dams more than 50 years old may have to be re-examined and upgraded.
A contentious special session of the Hawaii Legislature has averted the latest crisis for Honolulu’s controversial light-rail project, enacting a $2.4-billion financial bridge that backers hope will carry construction of the planned 20-mile, $8-billion system to completion in 2025.
Rising sea levels, as well as droughts and earthquakes, threaten the levees protecting the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta, which supplies 25 million Californians with fresh water.
California, Oregon and Washington are among the states moving forward with regulations and road maps for the construction and operation of building- and district-scale graywater capture and treatment systems for non-potable-water use, such as toilet flushing and irrigation.